Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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The connection between birds and land is indisputable, so it should come as little surprise that many of the people involved in the genesis of Wildlands Trust were passionate birders.

Brian Harrington was a budding ornithologist at the Manomet Bird Observatory when the idea of a regional land trust first sprouted. “I remember a group of us sitting around Leona Asker’s kitchen table while she pitched her plan to start a land trust,” he says. Along with Asker, Betty Anderson, the president of Manomet, was a primary instigator of these conversations.“Within a few weeks, we had to move the meetings to the Plymouth Airport canteen because the group grew too big for Leona’s kitchen,” adds Mass Audubon’s Wayne Petersen, another young bird aficionado at the time.

Brian and Wayne became world-class ornithologists, traveling the globe to study birds and protect their habitats. Yet neither lost focus on the importance of protecting their own backyard. In the decades following those modest 1973 meetings, their commitment to Wildlands Trust never wavered, leading to multiple terms as board members, committee members, and program leaders. Today, both serve on the Board of Directors, where they are respected by their peers for their important contributions around natural resources. Brian and Wayne also play key roles on the Lands Committee, which visits and assesses the conservation values of each parcel being considered for protection.

Purchase 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People today: wildlandstrust.org/shop50